Folding screen.



' F. W. GOLDHAHN.

FOLDING SCREEN.

APPLICATION FILED IuLY 20. |918.

`FLORENCE w. GOLnHAHN, or PHILADELPHIA, rENNsYLvANIA.

nomme SCREEN.

Specification of 'l Y l Appncationniediuiyao,

T0 all 'whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, FLORENCE W. GOLD- HAHN, a citizen of the UnitedStates, resid-v ing at 8811 'Lisser-` avenue, Philadelph1a, 1n theV4county of -Philadelphla and State of Pennsylvania, have invented new`and useful Improvements in Folding Screens, of which the following is aspecification.

VThe invention relates toV screens, and-has for an object to providesscreen that may be used for screening @if or partitioning parts of aroom, or in place of adoor an entrance, the-screen being of acollapsible or `foldable nature so as to form a compact package when notin use whereby it can be readily stored away, and alsoproviding for anadjustment whereby the screen byinanip.- ulation can be made to extendtwice its length,if desired.

Among other features the invention coinprehends ascreen whichis ofttimesknown as a boudo`r screen, and which may be arranged tc partition offpart of a room or an article oi furniture, the screen being so esignedand constructed that it can be readily folded up and packedA away in asmall space when not in use.` Further, the screen by reason of its noveldesign and construction can be manipulated to extend half of its nor`mal height when open, and twice its length or less,iif desired. To thisend the invention coniprehends various novel forms of construction andarrangement, as will be hereinafter more fully described. Y l

In the further disclosure of the invention, reference is to be had tothe accompanying drawing, constituting a part of this speciication, inwhich similar characters of reference denote corresponding parts in allthe views, and in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation showing the screenat its full height andin open position.

F ig. 2 is a plan view.'

Fig. 3 is a side elevation showing the screen reduced in height and madelonger.

Fig. 4 is a view of the screen when folded, and

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view taken through aportion of the screen showing the construction.

Referring more particularly to the views, the screen in its entirety isdesignated by the numeral 10, and consists of a plurality of sets ofsections, the lower set of sections being indicated by the numeral 11,and the Letters Patent Patented (Ict. 22, 1918.

1918. Serial No. 245,873.

upper set of sections by the numeral 12, with the first or main sectionof the lower set indicated by the numeral 13, and the re niainingsections in the lower set by the nuA4 moral 14; the upper set having thefirst or main. section indicated by the numeral 15, and the remainingsections in the upper set by the numeral 16. Each section consists of a.rectangular frame, comprising a bottoni 17, a top piece 18 and sides19,*which are suitably connected to form a rectangular or square frame,and each of the sections are then covered with a suitable materialindicated by the iuuneral 20. This material may be cloth, wood panelingor any other form of construction desired.V The main lower section 13has the `next adjacent secs tion let hinged thereto by means of suitablehinges 21, similar hinges being employed to hinge the remaining sections1st adjacent each other, together, it being of course understood thatwhereas the hinges cennecting the first two sections in the lower setare te one side, the pair of hinges connecting one of said sections withthe next adjacent section would be on the opposite sideand so on,alternating throughout the entire set of sections. bio also the firstupper section 1G is hinged by means of suitable hinges to the main uppersection 15, and the remaining upper sections 16 are hinged to each otheras described hertoforein the arrangement of the lower set of sections.When the sets of sections are arranged as shown in Fig. 1, it will beseen that the main upper section 15 will repose upon the main lowersection 18, and the next section 16 will repose upon the next lowersection 14 and so on. In order to prevent the screen from collapsing,sultable catches 22 are arranged to connect the superposed sections andhold them against accidental removal, the disengagement of the catchespermitting of removing the upper set of sections from the lower set ofsections.

It. will be seen that the first upper section 15 is also hinged byhinges 23 similar to the hinges 21, to the first or main lower section13, by having the hinges attached to the bottom of the first uppersection and the top of the rst lower section 13. With this construction,when the catches are unfastened to disengage the superposed sections inthe upper and lower sets, the entire upper set can be swung upon thehinges which are attached to the first section 13 so as to reduce theheight of the screen one-half, and this will bring the main uppersection adjacent to the first main lower section, as shown iu Fig. 3,thus permitting of opening up the remaining upper sections 16 so thatthey will extend adjacent to and in the horizontal line of the lower setof sections, thereby enlarging the screen as to its length. With thisconstruction the screen when in its normal set-up position can bearranged so that it will extend upivardly only half its height louttwice as long or less, as desired, it being of course understood thatone of the upper sections when the screen is swung downwardly, can befolded upon another section new in a lowered position, so as to reducethe length of the screen.

lith the arrangement set forth in Fig. 3, it will be apparent that theauxiliary lower sections in the lower set will extend to one side of themain section in the lower set, and the auxiliary upper sections in theupper set will extend to one side of the main section in Vthe upper set,which now lies adjacent to the main section in the lower set, and withthis construction the device can he adapted for various purposes, as forinstance, inclosing an article of furniture in a room, or to form alonger partition as the case may be. Whether the device is in thereduced extended position, or in its vertically enlarged position, itwill he apparent that the sections can he readily collapsed one upon theother and the entire device form a compact package, so that it can hestored away without taking up a great deal of room when it is notdesired to use the screen, and it will he apparent that by having ascreen of the character mentioned, the one construction adapted forvarious purposes will serve in place of two individual screens, whichmight ordinarily have to Copies of this patent may be obtained for beused in a case where a person desires a screen at one time of a certainheight, and at a later time a screen, shorter or longer in length.

I claim:

l. A folding screen comprising a plural ity of sets or sections forminga lower set and an upper set, each of said sets including a main sectionand auxiliary sections aud haring one of the auxiliary sections hingedthereto and the remaining auxiliary sections alternately hinged to eachother, said main section in the lower set being hinged to the mainsection in the upper set, to permit'of swinging the upper set fromnormal superposed position on the lower set, downwardly into a positionto extend in opposite directions to the sections in the lower set, withthe two main sections lying in adjacent relation.

2. A folding screen comprising a plurality of sets of sections forming alower set and an upper set, each of said sets including a main sectionand auxiliary sections and having' one of the auxiliary sections hingedthereto and the remaining auxiliary sections alternately hinged to eachother, said main section in the lower set being hinged to the mainsection in the upper set, to permit of swinging the upper set fromnormal superposed position on the lower set, downwardly into a positionto extend in opposite directions to the sections in the lower set, withthe two main sections lying in adjacent relation and catches for holdingthc sections in the lower set to the sections in the upper set againstrelative movement when the sections in the upper set are superposed uponthe sections in the lower set.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

FLORENCE W. GOLDHAHN.

ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C.

